Incarcerated lashkar-e-Tayyeba secret agent David Headley, who was one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, will depose before a special court in Mumbai — through video-conferencing from the United States — from Monday, two months after he was pardoned and made an approver in the case by the same court.
55-year-old Headley, who is currently serving 35-year sentence in a terror case in a US jail, will begin deposing before the Special Court from Monday. Though slated to get over by February 9, his deposition may stretch up to February 11, official sources said here on Saturday.
During the course of the hearing, the Prosecution is expecting Headley to unravel in detail the conspiracy behind 26/11 attacks on Mumbai and the chain of events leading to the dastardly terror act perpetrated by the 10 leT terrorists from Pakistan.
At the last hearing in the second phase of the 26/11 attacks trial held on December 10, 2015, Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam had informed the Special Court that the Prosecution was agreeable to Headley’s offer of turning into an approver in the case.
later, Additional Sessions Judge G A Sanap — who presides over special cases related to terrorism including those charged under now repealed TADA—made Headley an approver, subject to certain conditions, and granted him pardon in the 26/11 case.
"I have received the charging document filed against me in this court. It charges me with same conduct for which I was charged in the US (by the FBI). I had pleaded guilty to the charges in the US (court) and I admitted that I was participant in these charges (role 26/11 attacks)," Headley had told the special court here on day.
Disclosing to the court that he had confessed his role through a "plea bargain" to the US Government, Headley had also told the Special court: “I accepted responsibility for my role in those offences in my plea agreement (in US). I also agreed to make myself available as a witness in this court. I appear here ready to answer questions regarding these events if I receive a pardon from this court”.
With him having turned an approver, Headley will now depose in the trial of Zaibuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal as one of the key conspirators, against whom the Mumbai had filed a supplementary charge-sheet in the 26/11 terror attack case.
Apart from confessing to his close links with leT, Headley has admitted to the US investigators that he had done reconnaissance for the 26/11 attacks.
Investigations have so far revealed that Headley visited India five times between 2006 and 2008, drew maps, took video footage and did physical reconnaissance of several targets for the attacks, including the Taj Hotel, Oberoi Hotel and Nariman House.
Headley had allegedly passed the vital information that he had obtained through his reconnaissance of the target for use by the 10 leT operatives who carried out the attacks on various places in Mumbai like Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Taj and Oberoi-Trident hotels, Jewish centre Nariman House, and popular eatery Café leopold during the November 26-29, 2008 attacks, in which 166 people were killed and 300 others injured.
Given that Headley will depose before the special court as an approver, the second phase of the 26/11 trial is very crucial in view of the fact that 14,676-page supplementary chargesheet filed before Additional Metropolitan Magistrate P S Rathod, on October 16, 2012, dwells extensively upon the conspiracy hatched by leT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman lakhvi, Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, and others to carry out attack and the role allegedly played by Abu Hamza aka Abu Jundal in it.
The Prosecution’s case is that Jundal had taught Hindi to the lone surviving terrorist, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, and nine other fellow Pakistani terrorists who carried out the November 26-29, 2008 attack. He also faces the charges of having given directions to two of the Pakistani terrorists holed up at Nariman House, one of the terror targets, and briefing the Pakistani terrorists about the topography of south Mumbai where the attack took place.
Jundal, who was one of the handlers in the attack, was allegedly present along with lakvi and other conspirators at Karachi-based lET “control room”, from where the attack on Mumbai was supervised.